Eduqas A Level Psychology
Eduqas A Level Psychology Stress Exam Questions
Free Eduqas A Level Psychology revision for Stress: what you need to know, common mistakes and exam-style questions with answers. Covers characteristics of stress, adrenaline, evolution, stress genes, hardiness, self-efficacy, Type A, life events, hassles, beta blockers and SIT.
Practise Stress with past papers
Once you have learnt this topic, find the Stress questions in real Eduqas A Level Psychology past papers and mark them with the mark scheme. Doing lots of real questions is the quickest way to learn how examiners ask about each idea.
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About Eduqas A Level Psychology Stress
Stress is one of six behaviours in Component 3, of which you study three. You need its characteristics, at least two biological, individual differences and social psychological explanations, and at least two methods of modifying it. The specification lists adrenaline, evolutionary adaptation and stress genes; hardiness, self-efficacy and Type A and B personality; daily hassles, life events and locus of control; and beta blockers and stress inoculation training. Examiners expect clear biological detail, such as the role of the adrenal medulla, and evaluation that weighs the evidence, including the correlational nature of much stress research.
What you need to know
- Characteristics Stress occurs when perceived demands exceed perceived ability to cope. It has physiological signs (raised heart rate), emotional signs (anxiety, irritability) and behavioural signs (poor sleep, withdrawal). Chronic stress can damage health.
- Biological explanations Adrenaline is released from the adrenal medulla via the sympatho-adrenomedullary (SAM) pathway, giving the fight or flight response. Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome (alarm, resistance, exhaustion) sees this as an evolved adaptation that becomes harmful when stress is long-term. Stress genes may affect individual reactivity, for example to cortisol.
- Individual differences Hardiness (Kobasa) combines commitment, control and challenge and buffers against stress. High self-efficacy (Bandura) means believing you can cope. Friedman and Rosenman found Type A men (competitive, impatient, hostile) were about twice as likely as Type B men to develop coronary heart disease.
- Social psychological explanations Life events: Holmes and Rahe's Social Readjustment Rating Scale gives 43 events life change units (death of a spouse = 100). Daily hassles (Kanner et al., 1981) may predict health better than life events. People with an internal locus of control (Rotter) feel more able to cope.
- Methods of modifying Beta blockers such as propranolol block beta-adrenergic receptors, reducing heart rate and blood pressure, but do not tackle the cause. Stress inoculation training (Meichenbaum) has three phases: conceptualisation, skill acquisition and rehearsal, and application and follow-through.
Common mistakes in Stress
- Saying beta blockers reduce adrenaline release. They block the receptors adrenaline acts on, so the body's response is reduced.
- Confusing the SAM pathway with the HPA axis. SAM produces the rapid adrenaline response; the HPA axis produces the slower cortisol response.
- Listing the three Cs of hardiness wrongly. They are commitment, control and challenge.
- Assuming life events research shows stress causes illness. SRRS data are correlational and retrospective, and some events, such as marriage, are positive.
Try three Stress exam-style questions
1. Outline the role of adrenaline in the stress response. (4 marks)
Show the mark scheme answer
The hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system; which triggers the adrenal medulla to release adrenaline; adrenaline increases heart rate, blood pressure and breathing; preparing the body for fight or flight.
2. Describe stress inoculation training. (5 marks)
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Developed by Meichenbaum; conceptualisation phase, where the client learns about stress and identifies stressors; skill acquisition and rehearsal phase, where coping skills such as relaxation and positive self-talk are practised; application and follow-through phase, where skills are used in increasingly stressful situations; aims to protect against future stress.
3. Evaluate individual differences explanations of stress. (10 marks)
Show the mark scheme answer
Friedman and Rosenman found Type A men about twice as likely to develop CHD; later research suggests hostility is the key component; hardiness research supports commitment, control and challenge as buffers but early samples were mainly male executives; self-efficacy explains why people react differently to the same stressor; data often self-report; correlational.
Stress FAQs
What does Eduqas A Level Psychology Stress cover?
The characteristics of stress, biological, individual differences and social psychological explanations, and methods of modifying the behaviour, all with evaluation.
Which paper is stress examined in?
It is examined in Component 3, Psychology: Implications in the Real World, a 2 hour 15 minute written paper worth one third of the A level, where you answer on three of the six behaviours.
Which studies should I learn for stress?
Useful evidence includes Holmes and Rahe's SRRS, Kanner et al. (1981) on hassles, Friedman and Rosenman on Type A, Kobasa on hardiness and Meichenbaum's SIT.
